Greeted with great enthusiasm, wound up with very small enrollment. We =
have
had years in which enrollment was in the single digits, and I don't =
think it
has ever been more than 12 or 13 (in a school of 900).
We keep offering it because our principal wants it.
Anthony Celentano
Pope John XXIII High School
Sparta NJ
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A forum for independent school educators [mailto:ISED-
> L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Peter Gow
> Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:27 PM
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: Arabic Progams?
>=20
> Small program object lesson:
>=20
> We did, but she left.
>=20
> Although it was greeted with great excitement by all and sundry, very =
few
> kids actually enrolled in our Arabic class. The language teacher who
offered
> the class (Level I) has since moved on, and I haven't heard a murmur =
of
> nostalgia or desire to continue. This may have something to do with =
the
fact
> that kids who took the elective class were already enrolled in other
> language classes, and therefore no one needed to continue their =
studies in
> Arabic to fulfill a requirement.
>=20
> To build it into the system one would have to make Level I co-equal to
other
> languages and available to 9th graders (in our high school) or =
otherwise
> "bind" kids into the language as an element of the required (3 years =
in
our
> high school, even if they come in with previous language) language
sequence.
> But I think you really have to decide what critical mass for
sustainability
> would be. (We also always have families enthusiastic about the school
> offering Latin, but never for their own kids.)
>=20
> We did this with Japanese some years back, but never had more than a =
small
> handful of kids in the program. At some point we had to stop offering
entry
> level and just let the last few kids fulfill the requirement, at which
point
> the teacher was ready to move on anyhow, and did. She probably had the
> lightest student load of any independent school teacher in New England =
for
> her last couple of years.
>=20
> Good luck. I'm sure there are some vital and viable programs out
> there--Peter Gow
>=20
>=20
> --
> Peter Gow
> Director of College Counseling and Special Programs
> Beaver Country Day School
> 791 Hammond Street
> Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
> www.bcdschool.org
> 617-738-2755 (O)
> 617-738-2747 (F)
> petergow3 (Skype)
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